Posted by
Juwar74 on Saturday, September 06, 2008 6:03:27 PM
So what are these techniques that conservatives use to muddy an argument in order to make their stance appear legitimate? Well, because the list is quite lengthy, I'll have to break it up in subsequent blogs. I'll just focus on one at a time.
The first is ad hominem.
An ad hominem is a fallacy in which an argument is rejected based on some irrelevant fact about the person making the argument. It has two steps. First, an attack is made against the person's character, values, circumstances or actions. Second, this attack is taken as proof against the argument the person in question is presenting. It has the following form:
Democrat makes a fact.
Republican attacks Democrat's character.
Therefore, Democrat's claim is false.
Rush Limbaugh does this a lot, and he does it with sarcasm, which makes him entertaining. Here is an imaginary example of Rush Limbaugh debating Al Gore on global warming...
Al: "Come on Rush, global warming is real. The average global air temperature near the Earth's surface increased 0.74 C during the 100 years ending in 2005. Even the IPCC concludes that most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in man-made green house gas concentrations. This view has been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries...And while there maybe individual scientists who have voiced disagreement with some findings of the IPCC, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC's main conclusions."
Rush: "And how much publicity have you gotten with this garbage? You've got more publicity than you could buy! More publicity that they had to give you an Academy award! Everyone knows you made that film to make money from the environmentalists! They donated big bucks to your presidential campaign, how could you pander to them with this nonsense? Can't find another job after Washington? You liberal freak..."
Al: No, no, no..
Rush: Yes, yes, yes! You're nothing but a Big Government hack trying to take over our lives!..
Al: No, I'm just stating the facts...
Rush: Facts, shmacks. You're just a liberal nut job. Well, the American people can see through your lies and I for one won't stand for it! Get out of my station! And take your big money green movement with ya!
Notice how Rush never addresses the fact that temperatures have increased and that scientists have come to the consensus that the increase was likely caused by man-made emissions. Instead, he attacked Gore's circumstances--his publicity, his awards, and the donations he received, things that are irrelevant to the core of Al Gore's argument.
Someone who has a less intellectual mind, i.e. low class right wingers, conservative ideologues, the uneducated, and some people on this web site would have felt Rush had just won this argument because it made them laugh or made them feel good because of their despise of Al Gore personally.